GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council overwhelmingly voted in favour on Tuesday of extending the mandate of an investigative body probing possible war crimes committed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"The scope and brutality of Russia's atrocities in Ukraine are simply beyond any human comprehension," Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Yevheniia Filipenko, told the Council ahead of the vote. In a report published last month, the commission found that crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including the use of torture and attacks against the country's energy infrastructure, could constitute crimes against humanity.
Still, observers said the number of favourable votes - just four fewer than at the inquiry's creation in March 2022 - was promising, more than a year into the war."Only two countries opposed this which is quite remarkable," said Olaf Wientzek, director of the Geneva office of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation think tank.